Eric, I'll be the malaprop and you the maladroit. May your cat above be eaten by a Dogberryism.

On a side note of research, I just discovered that the Aizu clan had a Gatling Gun at their disposal during the Boshin War.

There was a reference in the accounts of 'spiral artillery' which I had taken as rifled guns but it seems cutting edge technology (the Gatling gun, still using paper cartridges during the American Civil War and thus less than effective - though 'Beast' Butler tried) had made it to the shores of Japan.